Service! Service!

This week has been a really random and different week compared to last week. I was so excited to go to Zone Conference and feel uplifted after finishing the Book of Mormon and praying to confirm it's truth again. It really is amazing to me that the Lord will always confirm it's truthfulness to us, no matter how many times we ask. I'm so grateful we can do that.

And then getting to watch Meet the Mormons was such a treat I can't even begin to express how happy it made me! I loved how uplifting and inspiring the movie was to me and I look forward to continuing in the work and helping people understand who we are and what we believe.

Then, later on in the week we got to do some last-minute service for an investigator that moved here from Salt Lake City, Utah! It was really cool to get a text from the elders that morning telling us about this guy that needs some help moving in and how he has been investigating the church for a bit and his wife is now getting interested! We quickly got over there and helped him move with the elders and our bishop. It took us a few hours, and his apartment was very full when we left. But, he was so grateful and we really connected well with them. So, we are hoping to get to know them more soon and maybe even teach them.

Getting to help him with the move and then getting to an extra day of service at the horse therapy center was so fun. It is actually really cool that we got to do two days of service with the horses because the second day, Sister Upton decided to buy these custom necklaces that they sell there. They are really special because they are made with a hair from your favorite horse! They look so cool and I'll probably invest in one next week :).

So, I love service and can't wait to continue doing as much as I can this next week. :)

Love, Sister Tyler

We received a wonderful picture of Sister Tyler and her companion 

as they shared a message with a family in the ward. :) Thank you!!

Pray and Pick

This past week, Sister Upton and I decided to take a new approach to finding people. We have contacted nearly every potential investigator and former investigator we know of, so we decided to start praying and picking roads to tract. From this experience we have met so many people, and we invited 84 people this week alone to learn about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! That's more than I've ever done before in my mission! During this experience of tracting each day, we have one solid potential investigator.

Sister Tyler and Sister Upton

After a long day of talking to everyone we meet, we decided to start driving back home. We realized once we got in the car that we had about twenty minutes left of the day. So, we could either contact a less active member, work on some things for our records, or we could tract one more small street. We didn't know exactly what to do, so we said a quick prayer and I knew we had to tract one more street, but didn't know where. Luckily, Sister Upton knew of a small street that would take about 20min. So, we drove there and started knocking doors. We were having no luck until we got to the end of the street and met a man who said he would be interested in taking lessons that we promised would bring him closer to Jesus Christ. He also said he knew his wife would be interested! So, we will go back in a couple of weeks to see them.

I have really learned that tracting isn't as scary as I thought it was. All it is is inviting people to learn about Jesus Christ. I love getting to invite people to learn every day :).

Another small note is that we had our ward's Primary program last Sunday. It was so fun and adorable! Even more fun we got to help some of the kids memorize their parts during the practice on Saturday. It was definitely a great opportunity for us to get to know some of the kids and their parents better :). I know that Primary programs can really change lives. After all, it was a Primary program that helped me find and memorize my favorite scripture (D&C 84:45). I can't wait for the Primary program next year :D.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Tracting to Street Contacting

[Mom Shelli here: Due to the Columbus Day holiday last Monday (and the public libraries being closed), Katy had to send us a LETTER with her blog post. We finally got it today—oh, we're so spoiled to be able to email...] :)

This week was definitely a regular missionary week when it came to our plans. But, the miracles we see are unique to each day.

Earlier in the week we got to do a lot of street contacting. We had originally planned out our day to be all tracting & contacting less-active members we don't know or potential investigators. But, once we were outside walking we felt prompted to go against our original plan and street contact in a different part of our area. So, we started walking that way and we ran into 2-3 people that were so nice and interested in understanding what it is we were doing and sharing. No one has continued investigating from those interactions, but I know that if we keep following those promptings we can be led to find those searching for the truth.

Another cool thing that happened this week is that at District Meeting (when all the missionaries in a few close areas get together to practice teaching and find ways to help their areas and improve themselves) we had President Stoker join us. It was definitely a unique experience because he doesn't usually attend a district meeting anywhere in the mission unless he needed to to talk to a missionary afterwards. But, when our meeting was over, he said he had to run home for lunch. So, it was cool to just have him join us for a couple of hours.

"Comfort food really is comfort food."
"I love meal appointments with members."

One last fun moment of the week was when we had a meal appointment with a family in the ward. When we got there the mom said she totally forgot we were coming for some reason. Luckily she had asked her husband to pick up some pizza on the way home. She asked if that was okay and we said YES!  haha  It was nice to just have some regular pizza and lemonade after a long day. Comfort food really is comfort food. She kept apologizing for forgetting and just giving us pizza, but it was really nice to have that and plenty of time to get to know them and their family. I love meal appointments with members.

It really was a good week full of fun experiences and memories. I look forward to having more adventures this upcoming week. :)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

General Conference: Superbowl weekend for missionaries

We found a cool lake by where we were out walking. :)

This has been an awesome week, with an even better weekend!

Something fun we got to do this week is we helped out at the mission office in forwarding all the letters to the missionaries that came to the office. It is cool to be able to send out those letters all across New England :).

This weekend was definitely the highlight of the week. We got to go to the chapel and watch all the sessions of general conference there and have lunch with all the other missionaries (and sometimes members) who went to that chapel to watch a session or two. General Conference is seriously one of the best weekends in missionary life because we get the opportunity to just soak in the spirit for 8 hours in one weekend. It is so much fun :)! It was really cool to hear that there are more than 88 thousand missionaries serving right now, and one of them is me! (haha) I am just so grateful to be serving.

I especially loved Elder Bednar's talk. It was funny how he said that we didn't receive bonus points as members or missionaries for inviting people to learn about the gospel because it is true. The reason we share the gospel with people isn't because we have to get in a certain number of hours or because we want extra points to help us get to heaven. I want to share the gospel so that everyone can experience the joy that comes from living a Christ-like life. I don't know where I would be without the gospel, and it doesn't really matter, because I know that I am blessed to have the gospel in my life since I was born and raised in such a wonderful and nurturing home. I know that I have been given the opportunity to learn these things since I was born so I could have the courage to go out and share what I know to be true even though it is really hard for me sometimes to simply open my mouth and talk.

I am so grateful that we can be baptized and have the Holy Spirit in our lives to help confirm to us that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's church restored again on the earth. Without this, we couldn't return to live with Him, our Heavenly Father, someday. I hope everyone will want to find this truth for themselves and once found they'll share it with as many people as they possibly can. You can experience your own joy of living the gospel, but sharing it is another joy in and of itself.

I can't wait for what this next week has in store.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler